Here are a few cases that work:
$ browserstack launch safari http://google.com
Launched job 2770009.
$ browserstack launch safari:6 http://google.com
Launched job 2770010.
$ browserstack launch safari:6.0 --os "OS X:Lion" http://google.com
Launched job 2770028.
Here are a few that don't:
$ browserstack launch safari:6 --os "OS X" http://google.com
Validation Failed - `os_version` can't be blank, `os_version` invalid
$ browserstack launch safari:6 --os "OS X:Lion" http://google.com
Validation Failed - `browser_version` invalid
This functionality will depend on logic in browseroverflow to intelligently select a browser based on the supplied spec.